By posting this discussion here, the next time I talk about rape and someone starts to derail the conversation by talking about false accusations, I can redirect the commenter to this post.

The issue of false accusations used to come up every time I spoke to men about rape. It’s come up in almost every rape-related blog post I’ve written.

I worked with one rape counselor who told me flat-out she didn’t believe anyone would ever falsely accuse someone of rape. However, I find there’s nothing so heinous that someone, somewhere, hasn’t done it. (After all, look at the number of people who commit rape.)

I’ve been told only 2% of reported rapes turn out to be false, but I’ve never found a reliable source for that statistic. A 1996 FBI report found that “Eight percent of forcible rape complaints in 1996 were ‘unfounded’ …” This includes complaints found to be “false or baseless” … and therein lies a problem.

What qualifies as an unfounded report? Many reported rapes aren’t prosecuted because those in the legal system don’t feel there’s sufficient evidence. That doesn’t mean the accuser lied. Likewise, is “baseless” the same as “false”? How do we categorize or even identify cases where victims are bullied or intimidated into retracting their statements?

Playing fast and loose with definitions is how you get “Men’s Rights” groups reporting highly inflated numbers of false reports in order to show that rape is exaggerated and used as a weapon against men.

I believe false reports of rape are rare, but they do happen. I wrote about one case in Michigan, back in 2004. A student falsely accused a teacher of rape. The teacher’s name was published in multiple newspaper articles. The accused teacher’s fiancee was quoted as saying the false charges “took their toll on him,” and he later died of a heart attack.

I can’t imagine the fear and the anger and the stress he must have experienced. The fact that he was exonerated and his accuser was arrested and sentenced for filing false charges doesn’t undo the pain he went through.

Here’s another example from Maine, which was reported only yesterday. A woman allegedly made up a story of being raped by five men after a fight with her partner. I can’t help noticing this line…

“[Police Chief] Craig said he plans to have the woman charged with filing a false report and plans to push for the maximum penalty.”

… and thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if police departments took real rape cases this seriously?

Lying about rape is a horrible thing. It hurts the one accused, and it hurts victims of rape by giving fuel to those who would use false accusations to deny the reality of rape. I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who deliberately and maliciously makes up an accusation of rape, for whatever reason.

I wonder though, how many anecdotal stories of false accusations are truly false. When someone comments how a friend’s cousin’s buddy was falsely accused of rape, what does that mean? Were charges filed and dropped? Did the accuser retract her (or his) accusation? Did the accused say “She’s lying!” and everyone simply chose to believe him?

False accusations are in many ways the reverse of rape cases. Rape as a crime tends to be underreported and disbelieved. Stories of false accusations, on the other hand, seem to be both widely believed and incredibly common … which makes sense, in a way. After all, the first thing someone’s going to say when accused of rape is, “Oh, she’s lying.”

Discussion welcome, as always. But as with other rape-related discussions here, I’ll be watching the comments and will moderate as needed, so please keep things respectful.

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Comments

"I don't know how common false accusations really are, but I do know that men need to live with constant fear. I've seen it up close and personal."

I don't live in fear of being accused of rape, and I see zero reason that I should.

I'm not trying to minimize what your friend went through. But generalizing from one individual to say that all men must live in fear doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I'm also curious whether the girl deliberately accused your friend, or if she simply mistook the identity of her attacker. These are two very different things. It sounds like you're saying she really was raped, but the wrong person was arrested. Which is still tragic and unfair, but isn't necessarily the same thing as using rape as a weapon.

"...the girls on campus used the threat of rape as a constant weapon against the guys."

The 1980's had some pretty extreme trends on the issues of rape and child molestation. (That was the decade of the Satanic Ritual Abuse scare among other things) I suspect a lot of people who were around college age then worry more about false accusations than the general population does.

I'm curious. Why did the women on campus feel the need to warn men to "be careful"--so much so that they had to develop a defensive tool to protect themselves? Threatening blackmail isn't something people do unless a) they're corrupt and criminal (which surely can't be said of a whole campusful of women), or b) under duress and in need of the weapons of the weak confronting the powerful.

I don't discount the idea that some women used the threat casually, or thought it was funny. But I also really wonder if men have any idea of what campus life is like for women--how constantly they are under pressure to provide sex to horny guys; how aggressive that pressure is. When I hear a man say, plaintively, that he "lived in fear," my first--not very helpful--thought is: welcome to the normal life of a woman at school.

I'll believe this supposed fear when men start telling each other to stop going to parties, stop being alone with women, stop drinking, stop being around women wh ohave been drinking, or otherwise seriously restrict their lives because they're so afraid of being falsely accused.

From talking to groups of men, I do think that fear is real. It's not a fear I understand, nor is it one I believe is justified, but it's definitely there. I haven't, however, seen evidence of men changing their behaviors as a result of that fear.

Considering the precautions women are required to take in order to not be deemed "responsible" for their own rape, I would actually encourage a culture where men are required to take precautions that prevent them from having sex with less-than-fully-consenting women. It would, at least, be sharing a responsibility (which I believe lies fully with the rapists.)

Are you aware that women are taught practically from the time we're old enough to go outside on our own the ways we must act to prevent rape? Park under a street light. Carry your keys in your hand with a sharp one between your fingers. Never walk alone at night. Never accept a drink from a stranger. Don't wear short skirts or revealing clothes, or otherwise look sexually available. Don't drink too much.

I fail to see how this fear that a small fraction of the male population supposedly lives in (a percent? two?) is even comparable to the fear that the majority of women have.